Each internet user has the personal responsibility to ensure that their personal information on-line is secure. By developing an effective understanding of on-line security best practices and by following a few simple guidelines, you can help to safeguard sensitive information relating to yourself, your friends, family or work colleagues.

With your help, we can also work towards reducing the frequency of fraudulent on-line activities.

The importance of selecting a secure password

Selecting a strong password is often the first step towards protecting yourself on-line. By following a few of the simple guidelines listed below, you can significantly improve the strength of your password.

What to do

Select a password which is at least 8 characters in length

Use a combination of lower case letters, upper case letters and numerals

Combine two words to form a new word

Substitute a number for a letter (eg. S = 5, E = 3 I or L = 1, 0 = O)

Select a number of characters which will be memorable to you, but will also be unique.

Change your password every 6 months

What to avoid

Passwords should not contain personal details such your username, name, DOB, address or maiden name

Do not store your password in obvious places, it is always safer to commit your password to memory

Tips for remembering your password

Select a password which may appear random, but has personal significance for you. Eg.
- Use the first letters of the title of your favourite song, book or quote
- Combine the names of your first two pets to form a unique word

Use words which you have made up, a slang nickname

Create a strong master password. You could then use this password for multiple accounts by making small changes (eg. if the password is for Eftel, you could add “Ef” after the 5th character of your password).

Now that I have my password, how can I keep it secure?

One of the most common ways that scammers can gain access to your personal information is through “phishing” e-mails.

Phishing is a term used to describe the fraudulent process of attempting to obtain confidential information such as usernames, passwords and credit card details via the Internet, by posing as a trustworthy source.

For example: A fraudulent e-mail claiming to be sent from Eftel, encourages you to reply with your personal account information including your username, password and date of birth. This e-mail also threatens that unless this information is sent through within the next 48 hours, your Eftel webmail account will be closed.

How is Eftel actively dealing with these phishing e-mails?

As part of our ongoing effort to ensure your on-line safety, please rest assured that we are making every effort to identify, report and block the source of these phishing e-mails.

This page also includes regular examples of the latest phishing e-mail alerts which target Eftel or any of our subsidiaries.

We are confident that by keeping you fully informed of these fraudulent activities, combined with the continued vigilance of our customers in reporting these scam e-mails, we will minimise any inconvenience they may cause.

Quick tips to help you identify “phishing” e-mail scams

Check the “From” e-mail address line
Phishing e-mails may contain a fake e-mail address in the "From" e-mail sender line. If you have not seen this e-mail address from Eftel before, the “reply to” address is not a standard Eftel.com.au address, or the e-mail address has been slightly altered (eg efftel.com or Eftel.net) then the e-mail you have received could be fraudulent.

Check the Eftel customer greeting
The distributors of phishing e-mails will generally not have access to your name, therefore many of these e-mails will contain greetings such as “Dear Account User” or “Dear Eftel e-mail User”.

Look for response deadlines
Many of these phishing e-mails will set a deadline for the update of your personal account information. These e-mails also claim that unless your account information is updated before a specified deadline, your Eftel e-mail account will be closed.

E-mail links or forms
Phishing e-mails generally contain a link which will redirect you to a bogus website or space in the e-mail to enter in your personal information. Please be aware that these external links can be faked and when in doubt, it is always safer to type www.eftel.com.au directly into your internet browser.

Look at the sign-off name and position
Phishing e-mails will generally be signed-off with a generic sign-off such as “Eftel Support Team” or “Eftel.net.au Team”.

A request to reveal personal information
Please be aware that Eftel will never request that you disclose your personal details via e-mail due to the security implications. Any e-mail which requests your Eftel username, password, date of birth, state or credit card information is clearly a phishing e-mail and should be treated with extreme caution.

I suspect that I have been sent a fraudulent e-mail. What should I do?

If you have received an e-mail you suspect is masquerading as an official Eftel communication, please e-mail our customer accounts team support@eftel.com.au.

To help us to identify and block the source of “phishing” directly relating to Eftel, we also request that you send through the fraudulent e-mail message headers to our customer accounts team.

To view these e-mail headers in Eftel Webmail simply:

Log into Eftel Webmail

Open the message you'd like to view headers for

Click the "View Full Header" option

The full headers will appear in a new window

Copy and paste this text at the top of the fraudulent e-mail in question and send it through to support@eftel.com.au

Delete any e-mails you suspect are SPAM.If you receive an e-mail you suspect is SPAM, we recommend that you delete the e-mail immediately.

Please do not reply to these e-mails or click on any links they may contain, as this will just confirm to the spammer that your e-mail address is currently active and may result in your e-mail receiving more SPAM.

Install and update third party Anti-Virus protectionA computer virus is a program which can infect a target computer and copy itself to spread among other connected computers.

Once infected, your computer may no longer be secure and could be used for a number of fraudulent activities including on-line identity theft, modification of your personal files, stealing your personal information, distributing SPAM e-mail or spreading the virus to other computer systems.

Anti-Virus software is used to identify, quarantine and remove any viruses which may be present on your computer, as well as helping to safeguard your system against subsequent infections.

There are a number of free anti-virus alternatives which may give you a basic level of cover, however for more comprehensive cover you may wish to consider subscribing to one of the following providers:

*Please note that Eftel does not provide support for these third party software applications.

Install and update Adware and Spyware removal tools
Spyware / Adware is potentially harmful software which is designed to infiltrate and/or damage a computer system without the informed consent of the end user.

Any personal information intercepted via spyware may then be used by an unauthorized third party to commit fraudulent activities.

To safeguard yourself against Spyware or Adware, you may wish to consider install and regularly run and update the following third party applications.

A list of fraudulent e-mails and the dates on which they were received by one or more of our customers, can be found below.

If you have responded to an e-mail similar to one of those listed below, please contact our customer accounts team on 1300 550 550 as soon as possible as your username and password may need to be reset.

Past phishing alerts list

**Please note that the following fraudulent e-mail examples are NOT official Eftel Communications**

Eftel.net.au Internet wish to inform you that there is a
congestion in your account, this is due to Phishing mails and
Internet spam. You have been contacted so that you will confirm
your account to avoid losing it to Internet spam. Please
fill the Technical Help Form below and send it
back to enable us update your account.

Eftel.net.au provides technical support which includes
troubleshooting guide,technical specifications and related links
for its Internet subscribers. Thank you for your understanding. We
apologize for any inconveniences
this may have cause you!

Sign,
Technical Support Team
?2010 Eftel.net.au Internet. All Rights Reserved